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use many of the solutions present
in the IT world today. Well-known
authentication mechanisms like IEEE
802.1X combined with RADIUS are
a good example. Many embedded
systems with high-level operating
systems can run cryptographic
libraries (such as OpenSSL) to support
all the secure Layer 3 protocols and
applications useful for secure data
interchange. However, a big challenge
arises when it is necessary to secure
Layer 2 industrial protocols with strict
real-time requirements. The analysis
of these scenarios shows that the
software approach of protecting these
frames by applying cryptographic
algorithms, even using crypto
accelerators, is not straightforward,
and in many cases custom hardware
processing is required.
In the presented topology, from the
network and user point of view, it is
necessary to secure three network
links—the redundant HSR/PRP, the
10/100/1G switching port and the
service ports—with authentication
mechanisms. Furthermore, due to all
the plant traffic passing through the
intelligent gateway, the three links will
play a vital role in monitoring traffic
for potential threats. A final concept
is the integration of a sensor interface
suite. As discussed, the advances
in the technology should help us
to simplify the installations, not
make them more complex. To fulfill
this demand, we integrated all the
standard digital and analog interfaces
in the gateway. Additionally, we also
included high-end interfaces for
advanced vibration sensors and high-
speed data acquisition interfaces with
direct access to the Zynq SoC device.
HOW SOC
PROGRAMMABLE
PLATFORMS DRIVE THE
CHANGE
The “magic” of merging high-end
networking, powerful processing
and sensing capabilities has been
obtained thanks to SoC programmable
platforms. Our product, named
CPPSGate40, embeds a Xilinx
Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC
device implemented on the SoC-e
SMARTzynq OEM module. The dual-
core ARM® Cortex™-A9 MPCore™
on the device is complemented with
different memory resources (DDR3,
flash, massive storage units, etc.)
and hardware to support multiple
high-speed networking links. This
infrastructure offers a huge level of
freedom to partition hardware and
software processing in order to face the
Figure 3 – Lathes section in the Microdeco factory
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